Heill Óskar!

> 25 MHz and 128 Mb RAM seems like an almost impossible combination;

is

> there a typo there? I mean, 25 MHz is *OLD* (what, 1992 standard?),
> while 128 Mb RAM is normal for today (my 500 MHz has 128 Mb RAM).

128 Mb was a mistake. I had 4 x 4 + 4 x 1 Mb (8 memory chips in all
in two banks). Then I went one level higher by replacing the 1 Mb
chips by 16 Mb chips. Thus, I now have 4 x 4 + 4 x 16 Mb = 80 Mb.
I did that to create more space for loading several applications
at the same time. (e.g. System + Eudora + Netscape + Word + Swap
space). The machine is from 1990, and so it is a bit slow today.
But I don't know if CPU speed correlates with modem speed.
I think the two are independent.

> >In Icelandic that would be:
> >
> > "Hinn mikli háskólinn í Reykjavík."
> >
> > Do you ever use anything like that?
>
> No, doesn't work :)

Double determination is used a lot in Norway.
'Det store Universitet' sounds more pompous than
'Det store universitetet'.
Thanks for telling me that you can't use it in Icelandic!
Must be difficult to understand for others. Here some
examples for the readers.

A man - undetermined
The man - determined
Manthe - *also* determined! But now the article has
simply switched position, and has moved
from the front to the back of the noun.
A great man - same example with adjective (undetermined)
The great man - determined.
The great manthe - double determination!! (impossible in English)

Ein Mann - unbestimmt/undetermined
Der Mann - bestimmt/determined - article is prefixed.
Mannder - bestimmt/determined - article is postfixed.
Ein grosser Mann <-- undetermined, adjective is strong!
Der grosse Mann <-- determined, adjective is weak..
Der grosse Mannder!!! :) :) = double determination.
(impossible in German)


Using "hinn" means that you can't have the
article

> attached anymore; "hinn" is the article detached, practically. So:
>
> "Hinn mikli háskóli í Reykjavík"
>
> But rather,
>
> "Hinn mikli háskóli Reykjavíkur"

So you put the locus (Reykjavík) in the nominative?
Strange.

>
> > Another example:
> >
> > "Den gamle mannen fra havet"
> > "Hinn gamli maðrinn frá hafsins" (the old man from the sea)
>
> First off, "frá" governs dative, not genitive; "frá hafinu". And in
> Icelandic, "frá hafinu" would be rather weird, semantically

speaking.

When I wrote the phrase "frá hafsins", I had actually looked it
up in the Old Norse dictionary. And it says that when frá is
used for localisation, it governs the genitive case. But I
suppose that is only in Old Norse, because the genitive was
used more frequently back then, in Old Norse.

Example: Ludwig von Beetdorf.
Here Beetdorf is in the dative case, because in German
"von" rules the dative - the noun or name following it must
be declined to correspond to the dative case.
As a variation, one might also express it somewhat
artificially as "Der Ludwig des Beetdorfes". Here you see
that "Beetdorf" has received an -es ending, because now
the genitive is used. In English, this same example would be:
"Louis from Bedthorpe", alternatively "Bedthorpe's Louis" :)
An equivalent exampe from Old Norse would be:
"Þórrøþr frá Stokkalands" or "Stokkalands Þórrøþr", since
"frá" governs the genitive when it points to place names..
That is.. if I understood the dictionary entry correctly.

> "Úr hafinu", "af hafinu", "af sjónum", "á sjónum"; or much better,
> without article: "af hafi", "af sjó", "á sjó". In this context, I'd
> prefer using genitive, actually, rather than a prepositional phrase:
>
> "Hinn gamli maður hafsins."

(that was a book title -- was it Hemmingway?)

>
> Or perhaps better,
>
> "Hafsins gamli maður."
>
> Or while I'm at it, why not be poetic, alliterate, and use

archaisms:

>
> "Unnar aldni maður." :þ

He he :) Skm 28, 5!

>
> ("Unnur" = wave; "aldinn" = old, aged)



> (Haukur might disagree; "he's the poet, I'm the linguist")
>
> Or, to get silly:
>
> "Bárukarlinn." :þ :þ
>
> ("bára" = wave (archaic); "karl" = old man)
>
> In any case, a Scandinavian phrase like "Den gamle mann(en) fra
> havet." does not translate well into Icelandic, without complete
> restructuring; the meaning of it is rather poetic, and "hinn gamli
> maður frá hafinu", albeit correct, is very unpoetic and unstylish.
>

I guess it all depends on the rhytm that you use.

"Det ligger et skib på havsens bund,
Det skibet heder Neptun!"

>
> > Resources
> > For more information: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse
> > Post message: norse_course@...
> > Subscribe: norse_course-subscribe@...
> > Unsubscribe: norse_course-unsubscribe@...
> > List owner: norse_course-owner@...
> > URL to this page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/norse_course


> But in spite of everything, you have a point; having it in our
> signature might be a good idea. You never know with people!

Well, it was perhaps a bit of an oversuggestion. But if you want to
try it, there is an editing menu, where you can enter the wellcoming
message as well as the "footer".
I also took the liberty of uploading a character table. It worked
fine, because you can just click it, and Netscape will show you
the table. Hope you didn't mind. You are wellcome to move or
remove it, when you are arranging your layout. But as a general
feature, it is of course very useful that users can share files
that way.

Ketill